Small company bosses can attract senior staff by offering them a better quality of life through flexible working and homeworking opportunities, a new survey suggests.

Many small businesses struggle to recruit suitably qualified staff, with those in top-end positions even harder to attract, as they cannot compete on pay with larger rivals.

But the poll by recruitment consultancy Blue Skies suggests that senior executives are no longer motivated exclusively by money and would be prepared to work for organisations that can offer them a better work/life balance instead of hard cash.

The survey of marketing communications professionals found that 65% saw flexibility as more important than salary when it came to job satisfaction.

"The survey findings challenge the widespread perception that money promotes a feeling of job satisfaction," said Ben Vickers, managing director of Blue Skies Marketing Recruitment. "It is clear that the excesses of the 1980s are far behind us and colleagues in the boardroom place quality of life as a far more important priority than chasing a fat pay cheque."

"This could be down to executives having a slightly older profile and wanting to spend more time with their families, particularly if they‘ve earned substantial sums earlier in their careers," he added. "We‘re seeing employers offering increasingly flexible packages to suit individuals‘ needs in a bid to attract the best candidates on the market."

This is good news for smaller companies, which often tend to be more able to offer flexible working than larger competitors where there is more of a culture of working long hours in the office.

The study also revealed that brands are suffering a crisis of confidence as digital marketing and social media continue to grow in importance, and many are failing to adapt to the new reality where word of mouth has become the most trusted source of information.

A massive 66% of communications professionals believe that marketing campaigns are weaker and less dynamic than two years ago despite the proliferation of new web-based media channels